Turrfield was a small place, not many noise. Somehow it made Tweener the Yamask comfortable enough to play around. It seemed a lot less shy than earlier and kept acting impish. "You are quite the playful fellow, aren't you?" Kjolmar asked him.

The gym challenge was all about chasing some Wooloo in to fens, an easy task with the help of Neo and Tweener. The battle itself had not been hard either but it did surprise him when Milo dynamaxed his Eldegoss. Tweener did not have enough battle experience yet to defeat the dynamaxed Eldegoss but Neo was able to dynamax itself and take his foe out. It was such a sight to see Neo so big for once! And his attacks had changed too, Neo had been able to send huge steelspikes towards Eldegoss.

With his new badge in his pocket, Kjolmar sat in the crowd to watch Aro or Lark battle Milo too.

Aro, who had been mainly silent on the way to Turfield, had been strategising a plan for the first gym. He knew it would be the easiest one to obtain but the lack of experience on Shades part made him worry about how the gym challenge would go.

Kjolmar went up first to challenge Milo after they had completed the first Gym Mission. Aro watched as Kjolmar made quick work out of Milos Pokemon. Aro and Luna smiled as the crowd roared for Kjolmar.

“The crowd love him...” he said to Luna. “....wait till they get a load of us!” He continued as he nodded to Luna before he walked into the arena as they were being introduced.

Before he knew it, Aro’s battle was underway. He lead out with Shade who surprised everyone with how quick and nimble she could be, with her speed and good use of infestation she was able to knock the first two Pokemon out before falling finally to Milo’s Eldegoss.

Aro smiled as he sent out a Dynamaxed Luna which was able to easily overpower Milo’s Dynamaxed Eldegoss. A final Max Steelspike was enough to send Milos ace back to his trainer.

Finally, he had the first badge, their Galar journey had started properly. He made his way to stands and found Kjolmar as they both settled down to watch Lark.

Aro's gym battle had been nothing less than Kjolmar expected of it. Kjolmar knew quite well how skilled his old friend was. The sight of a huge Luna was quite the treat to the eyes and Neo seemed very exited to watch it happen. You could tell when Neo got exited by the speed he spun his gears. "It's too bad you only get to dynamax one Pokemon at a time." Kjolmar said to Neo. "Can you imagine the damage of you and Luna doing a max steelspike at the same time?"

By the time it was time for Lark's battle, Kjolmar made some room in the front seats for Aro and his partners. Tweener hovered towards his new friend Shade while Neo sought the company of Luna. "Let's see how this new kid does when he's not behind his camera." Kjolmar said.



@HokumPocus @DankDutch

Flash's hooves dug eagerly into the earth, cracking it open all around him and engulfing him in white light. Choosing the zebstrika had initially seemed like a risky undertaking, but Lark knew what he was doing. Before he could even finish his commands he tore through the battlefield, engulfing himself in fire. Milo's pokemon had managed to avoid getting seared the first few charges, but turn after turn the flames grew closer to their target. After having stricken the gossifleur with a lucky hit only his eldegloss was left.

"His speed's getting better. Another pass or two'll do it." Lark muttered to himself, adjusting his camera. It was impossible to reign in Flash in the heat of battle, outside of basic commands.

His eyes fixated on the dynamaxed Eldegloss. "Through the side and jump!" Dodging a flame charge was easy when you were a nimble and small. Who said dynamaxing was only ever a good thing?

"Now!"

Flash tore through the field in an arc, a hot blur of orange and white. When he at last leapt towards his foe, it looked as if a kaiju was getting torn to pieces my a tank missile, sending hot smoke and fire scattering to the sky and ground. There was no way the ensuing explosion hadn't left Flash without a scratch. Sure enough, amidst the chaos a black and white lump took shape, struggling to stand properly. Flash shook himself off and let out an angry neigh. He had survived.

Lark sighed. "Geez, talk about overkill. I guess that's one way to get likes."

As the group made their way through the first three gym battles, they grew to know each other better. Kjolmar became less suspicious of Lark while improving his bond with Aro even further. Neo only seemed to show interest in Luna for now and pretty much ignored everyone else. Tweener proved himself to be rather naughty and loved playing tricks on others, in particular on Shade, Shutter and Flash.

Upon arrival at the city of Hammerlocke, the group overhears that the trainer Bede is collecting wishing stars for Chairman Rose in order to save Galar. As they learned earlier, the wishing stars are the energy source for the Dynamax bands. "According to this article written bij Professor Magnolia, the wishing stars are pieces of the legendary Pokemon Eternatus." Kjolmar shared with the group. He look at some information about the city and noticed it had an underground power plant. "If they store the energy somewhere, it just has to be there."

As Kjolmar scrolls through the city's information, he suddenly raised an eyebrow. "Oh, this city has some vaults with important information about Galar. We should check it out." Kjolmar looked around him as if he was looking for something. "Wait, where did Tweener go?" Not far from them there was a scream. "Nevermind, I think I found him."

Afer stopping Tweener from playing pranks on the people of Hammerlocke, the group explored the city. After visiting the vaults, the café and the battle area, they found out that the local gym leader was not present at the time. "Is there any other place we can go to get our fourth badge?" Kjolmar asked himself out loud. His Rotomphone buzzed and popped up: "Ballonlea in the northwest from here is a viable option for your next destination. Travel via Stow-On-Side and through Glimwood Tangle to reach it."

"Right, thank you Rotomphone. But let's take a rest first, that café had some nice sweets and I believe the owner wanted to have a fun battle with us using his Alcremie." Neo didn't seem very interested. It could have something to do with Alcremie being a fairy type, which are an easy win for steel types like Neo. "Don't worry buddy, we will find you a challenging opponent soon, you won't get rusty."

Aro walked around Hammerlocke staring at his three gym badges so far. He knew that the easy part of this challenge was over, going onwards he expected much harder opponents. Although Shade has been surprising Aro with his battle skills, he had to admit that Luna had done most of the heavy lifting so far.

He saw that Neo felt a similar way to Luna. Aro could sense that Luna was missing an exciting sort of spark to his battling, that made him think on his toes. This was the only problem with being as experienced as Neo and Luna were, they always strived for stronger opposition.

“I have an idea, Stow-on-side has two gyms right? But you only chose to fight one of the leaders there. How about Luna and Neo have a battle before we challenge for badge four? Winner chooses theirs and the losers gym leader? It might be a way to get you both a friendly but even battle in.” Aro suggested to Neo and Kjolmar.

Shade appeared on Aro’s shoulder from out of nowhere, as per usual slightly making Aro jump.
“How am I not use to that by now?” He chuckled.
Shade seemed to be somewhat jealous of Luna and Neo, it was like he admired them both like battling idols. Aro could tell that Shade wanted to be just as strong as them, her own unstoppable force.

Though tempted to use Flash as a photogenic transportation method through the more open areas of their travels, Lark learned quite quickly that a temperamental stallion of a pokemon and Tweener did not make for an ideal combination. Besides, he was traveling with other people now, so he wasn't too peeved about it.

"Two gyms?" he asked, staring directly into Shutter's glassy eyes. Her lifeless gaze put him at ease around the livelier personalities. "Sounds dumb," he sighed, "can't get everything on camera if they're pulling a gimmick like that..."

"Unless..."

He listened to their plan, droopy eyes matching his pokemon. "Whoever fights the leader I don't snaps a couple of quick pics for me."

Kjolmar agreed to both Aro's and Lark's ideas. He noticed how Tweener often tried to convince Shade into playing pranks on Flash the most, which seemed to trigger Flash' temper. "Tweener, stop that. You're not only getting yourself in trouble but you're bringing Shade down with you." Kjolmar said as if he was a parent talking to a child. Tweener then sort of giggled but obeyed the command and left Flash alone.

"I am sorry about that." Kjolmar then said to Lark. "Tweener is still new to the team, he has a lot to learn. As you can tell, Neo is far more disciplined."

As they exited Hammerlocke, they overheard some people talking about the city's own power plant. Kjolmar decided to ignore it by now, his mind was set on Stow-On-Side now. On the road, he walked in between Neo and Luna and made conversation with them. "Are you guys hyped for your battle?" Neo grinned his gears a little faster in excitement. Kjolmar peered at Lark before looking back at Neo and Luna. "I am a little intrigued by Shutter. I never owned a Venomoth, you know how I feel about bug Pokemon in general, but this one has an interesting aura I have to admit."

Kjolmar raised his voice a little so Lark could hear their topic. "I think a triple battle with Shutter could be fun. While Neo deals with poison and fairy enemies and Luna dominates dark types, Shutter can easily take care of the fighting and grass types."

Kjolmar didn't know much about Lark and Shutter yet and wasn't too sure about their experience compared to what he knew about Aro's path and his own. Being Aro's travel partner in the past made their connection firm and gave them a head start compared to anyone new joining the team but despite that, Kjolmar was open to the idea.

When they almost arrived at Stow-On-Side, Kjolmar had the feeling they were being followed. From the corner of his eye, he noticed a Pokemon watching him closely. When he turned to face it, the Pokemon quickly hid. He shrugged it off for now and the group entered the city.

Aro had to admit that he has interested in Kjolmars suggestion of a triple battle between Luna, Neo and Shutter. Triple battles were something that Aro had very little experience in, and added another layer of competitiveness to the situation. For one, both Luna and Aro hated losing to new challengers more than anything. Considering Aro had battled Kjolmar enough before and lost to him on several occasions, he and Luna now had something else to prove to Lark and Shutter.

“I’m down for a triple battle if you were up for it Lark?”

As they entered Stow-on-Side the landscape changed dramatically, an almost sandstone and terracotta town lay before them. Shade instantly went floating off to explore. Aro looked at Luna.

“Go keep an eye on Shade for me buddy, make sure she stays out of trouble. I’ll meet you at the Poké Center.”

Luna nodded and followed shade off as a chaparon. Aro watched knowing that although Shades curiosity worried him, he knew Luna was more than capable of protecting her. It always helped that Luna could communicate to Aro if anything went wrong. He then caught up to the others.

“So how about we head to the Poké Center? Then we can prep for our battle before the next gym?” Aro asked his companions as the sun gleemed across their new destination.

While Luna followed Shade around, Neo was eager to follow Luna in turn. It grinned its gear fast while looking at Kjolmar. "Sure, go ahead." he replied as if he perfectly understood what Neo was trying to ask. Neo closed in on Luna as they both followed Shade.

Suprisingly, Tweener stayed close to Kjolmar this time. Kjolmar wondered if Lark would keep Flash in its PokeBall or if it would be allowed to run around. In either case, Kjolmar planned to keep a close eye on Tweener.

The Poke Center was their first destination upon entering the town. Kjolmar spotted some people not for from it who were buying and selling some stuff, almost like poachers. He decided he would go check it out after their visit at the Poke Center. Inside the center he searched for some comfortable seats and sat down to read up on some information about the town. "Let's see, there is the mural and there are the bargain shops. And the two gyms of course, one ghost type and one fighting type. Hmm, not sure yet which one I would pick if I win our battle. I think the most challenging battle for my team would be the fighting type gym, as Neo has a weakness to those and Tweener has little battle experience." He then looked at Aro and Lark. "What about you guys?"

"Triple battle huh..."

He took a fat gulp from an energy drink with one hand and continued to text with the other. "Shutter's not really a crowd pleaser, she's more of a technical- what do you call them? Status inflicters? Anyways, she's not the type to get in your face. I use her whenever I'm in a pinch and have to fight without being picturesque about it."

His thumb traced circles along the surface of her old pokeball. "A triple battle would be a good way to put her to use, with some teammates to let her set things up a bit."

---

Anyone who looked at Lark for more than five seconds could tell he was definitely used to surfing from pokemon center to pokemon center. Everything from the way his splayed out body took more seats than necessary to the various devices he unfurled all around the table in front of them. It was as if he was concentrating all the energy in his body inside his fingers, typing up paragraph after paragraph for both his followers and business pals.

"Ghost type gym for me, definitely," he said, not looking up from a particularly tense text conversation, "Those aren't common around the world, so it's sure to get some buzz on the net if I manage to beat the leader there."

-removed-

As the gang entered the Pokecenter, Aro watched as Lark made himself at home, finding a corner of the open space and sprawling himself out along several seats whilst still somehow not taking his gaze off his phone. Aro shook his head and chuckled as he made his way over and sat down.

“I’ve been thinking about these gyms and honestly my team has pros and cons against both leaders. I think Luna and Shade will do fine regardless...” Aro trailed off as the noise behind him seemed to get louder.

He looked behind him to see Challenger Bede had finally touched down in Stow-on-side. His smug grin gleamed from his face as he walked up to the counter.

“Not this guy again, he’s just so... annoying” Aro said with a sigh.

It wasn’t long before Bede had noticed the gang and headed towards them.

“Hey losers, I see the other gym leaders must have taken pity on you if you’ve gotten this far...” Bede said before looking at Shade who was hovering around Aro. “You still have two Pokemon and it doesn’t look like your dreepy is getting any stronger.” Bede laughed as he continued

Aros fist clenched tighter as his anger built towards the cocky challenger, suddenly he felt Luna trying to calm him down in his head. Aro knew Luna was right and stood up. He turned to Bede and looked him straight in the eye.

“We were about to have a friendly triple battle as a group, how about we make it a four way battle and a little less friendly? One Pokemon each, last Pokemon standing wins. Unless of course...” Aro paused and looked Bede up and down. “...Rose was wrong about you?”

Bede’s face went from pure white to a deep red as Aro spoke, he had clearly had a few buttons pressed. His breathing became heavy and his whole body began to shake in anger.

“Meet me outside in 10 minutes, you guys won’t know what’s coming for you.” Bede replied before storming out of the pokecenter in a violent rage.

Aro turned to the group and shrugged.

“Seriously... that guy!” He shook his head as he noticed a few people looking at him.

That Bede person sure had some misplaced confidence when he talked big, Kjolmar knew there weren't many trainers out there who would brag to Aro and not be completely crushed in shame. Kjolmar grinned at Aro before commenting out loud: "If someone is so desperate to be humiliated, who are we to take away that desire? I reckon we have some time before we have to move on with our journey."

When Bede stormed outside, Kjolmar looked at both Aro and Lark. "Right, how do we want to do this exactly? Since honor is on the table, I am not risking anything by choosing anyone else than my trusty Neo. Will you guys go for Luna and Shutter or did you have other plans?" Kjolmar realized he had no idea what kind of Pokemon Bede would use.

Aro turned to Kjolmar as he spoke after Bede left. He smiled slightly at his friends comments before speaking up himself.

“I’m sorry to have dragged you two into this, I just really wanted to shut that guy up.” He apologised

He then looked at Luna who nodded at him knowing what Aro needed him for next.

“I think my best bet is to use Luna, considering we know Bede has beaten four gyms already he must be relatively strong and not knowing what Pokemon he will use makes me more reluctant to use Shade right now.” Aro explained

He looked at Shade who seemed to be feeling down after Bede’s harsh words. Aro felt bad, Shade had proved that she was an asset to his team in the previous gyms. Aro knew he had to make Bede pay for his words towards shade, but for now Aro comforted Shade.

“Don’t listen to him, your the strongest Dreepy I’ve ever seen! You will prove him wrong soon” Aro said to Shade

Shutter, Shutter, Shutter. The wonder bug that was a living nightmare against anything slower than her glassy wings. It had been awhile since her last real battle, though Lark didn't consider her an option for a four-way battle for even a moment. Battling with her was a very technical endeavor, and not something he saw himself pulling off when there were three other pokemon against her. He needed someone aggressive, someone who could handle the chaos of that kind of battle and add to it just as much. He looked at the pokeball pertaining to his only other choice.

"We're really doing this, huh. Guess it's Flash for me." He thought about letting him out inside the pokemon center, but multiple incidents in the past regarding Flash and tight spaces all pointed towards it being a horrible idea. How did that one expression go, like a bouffalant in a china shop? He was lucky that the pictures from that one time went viral and paid for themselves.

Outside, Kjolmar removed his jacket in order to fully embrace the battle ahead.

"Let's show our opponent what steel types are made of. Neo, I choose you!"

Neo seemed to be well rested and its gears were grinding faster as usual, indicating that it was in for a fierce battle. Its calm behavior earlier seemed long gone when it came to a battle and despite having little empathy for human beings, it never wanted to let Kjolmar down.

"Alright, show us what you got."

Meanwhile Tweener had ran off to play some tricks in the city, not fully aware that Kjolmar and Neo were having a battle. It ran into a group of children and pulled some pranks.

Aro walked outside the poke centre with Lark and Kjolmar. As they got back outside into the somewhat orange stone like town, Aro felt the heat of the sun beating down on them. Aro took his long black jacket off also, something that he hadn’t felt was nessecary for any of the previous gym leaders. It was almost like a warning that he wasn’t going to hold back in this battle.

As Kjolmar got into place, Bede casually walked up to the old etched out arena square that the others had started to set up in.

“PEOPLE OF STOW-ON-SIDE, PREPARE TO SEE MYSELF, THE GREAT GYM CHALLENGER BEDE, BEAT THREE LOSERS AT ONCE.” Bede shouted out for the locals to hear, smirking at Aro whilst doing so.

Aro smiles back and walked into his Corner with Luna firmly stood before him. Aro hadn’t taken a battle this seriously since his last farewell battle with Kjolmar, except this time he was proving his worth to two new trainers as well as Kjolmar.

“One Pokemon each remember, last man standing right?” He said to Bede as he got ready in his own corner.

Bede nodded and pulled out his pokeball.

“Go Ponyta, let’s beat these chumps!” He said as a bright light revealed his Pokemon.

Aro could see this Ponyta was different, a Galatian variant, but wasn’t sure its typings. It made him feel uneasy.

“Ready when you are Lark...?” Aro asked his friend

During the battle, Kjolmar and Neo focused on dealing damage rather than avoiding it. Because of this, Neo took a few hits but luckily they weren't fatal. Kjolmar was glad that the Galarian version of Ponyta did not seem to be the fire type, that would have made the battle a lot harder for his steel type.

Not having the fire weakness covered made him think. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to only bring Neo to Galar. He quickly took his rotomphone to send a text. "Could you send over one of my water types from previous regions in about half an hour?" After sending it, he focused on the battle again. Neo was definitely a hard hitter and it almost felt cruel to bash that unicorn-looking creature.

What the group didn't know was that they were being watched by someone in a Team Rocket outfit. The person took out a rotomphone of his own and informed someone about the battle in front of him. "I am pretty sure, miss Sierra. It's him. This is going to take more just a grunt like myself, I think this situation requires all three of you." After briefing to this Sierra person, the Rocket grunt disappeared.

Meanwhile the battle was coming to an end. "Flash cannon!" Kjolmar shouted to Neo in the hope to finish it.